John Michael McDonagh

John Michael McDonagh
John Michael McDonagh at the Berlinale 2011
Born	Elephant and Castle, London, England
Occupation	Screenwriter, film director
Citizenship	British Irish
Notable works	The Guard (2011), Calvary (2014), War on Everyone (2016)

John Michael McDonagh is an English/Irish screenwriter and film director. He wrote and directed The Guard (2011) and Calvary (2014), both films starring Brendan Gleeson. He was born in London in 1967. He is the older brother of playwright and filmmaker Martin McDonagh.

McDonagh made his first foray into writing and directing with The Second Death, a short film released in 2000. Next McDonagh adapted Robert Drewe's 1991 novel Our Sunshine into the screenplay for the 2003 film Ned Kelly, which was directed by Gregor Jordan.

McDonagh gained considerable attention in 2011, with the theatrical release of his feature film directorial debut The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle. The film received critical acclaim, with a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and went on to become the most financially successful independent Irish film of all time.

In 2014, McDonagh released Calvary, a blackly comic Irish drama about a good priest tormented by his community. Brendan Gleeson plays the main character.

McDonagh returned to the crime comedy genre for his 2016 feature, War on Everyone, which stars Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Peña as a pair of intractable Albuquerque police detectives.

Most recently McDonagh told The Hollywood Reporter "I’m currently working on Assumption, my adaptation of the book by the great Percival Everett, about a black deputy sheriff in New Mexico," the filmmaker told The Hollywood Reporter